Daily News & Information about the Census & BMDs

Case Study - Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett

Elizabeth Barrett was born in 1806, and at the age of 15 she injured her spine in a fall. When her brother died in 1838, she seemingly became a permanent invalid, and spent that majority of her time in her room writing poetry.

In 1844, Robert Browning wrote to Elizabeth, admiring her poems, and over the 20 months courtship and before getting engaged in 1845, they exchanged around 600 letters. However, Elizabeth's father disapproved of the courtship and the couple wed secretly before running off to Italy.

In Italy, Elizabeth's health improved and the couple had a son, Pen, in 1849. Elizabeth died in 1861 at the age of 55, and Robert and their son returned to England. It was then that Robert became recognised as a poet like his wife, and he has been honoured as a literary figure ever since his death in 1889.

"I began by doing a BMD Image Search in Marriage Records, using the BMDindex.co.uk website. I knew they were married on September 12th 1846, so I set the year range to 1846. I then typed in 'Robert' in forename and 'Browning' surname, and clicked search.

As I knew which month they were married in, I scrolled to the the 'Jul-Sep' records, and clicked to view the image.

I found Browning, Robert easily, and a closer look reveals that they were married in Marleybone. The volume number and volume page number were also included, which can be used for ordering a certificate."